I’ve had a difficult time with ASMZ over the years. Like many other fans, I came to them due to my rabid affinity for reluctant-but-not-really frontman Efrim Menuck’s previous gig, Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The first album put out by ASMZ, He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corners of Our Rooms, remains my favorite album of the previous decade, even if not everyone here agrees with me. Since then, my interest in ASMZ has taken a consistent downward spiral, culminating in 2008’s 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons. My colleague Richard White managed, after exerting remarkable effort, to find the album slightly-more than marginally-listenable, but I found at least three-fourths of the record to be more resembling of thirteen cats dragged across thirteen blackboards than anything remotely enjoyable—even if it did give us the memorable (and somewhat disturbing) line “Love the horse or leave the horse!”

So I suppose we could say that my expectations weren’t too high going into Kollaps Tradixionales, especially when the standard patterns began to emerge. The moniker of the group changed once again: ASMZ is currently officially known as Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, perhaps dropping “Tra-La-La Band” to reflect the reduced membership of the collective. As with many of the band's previous records, Kollaps Tradixionales features four long-form compositions, although a few of the pieces are split across multiple tracks (specifically, tracks two and three form one song, as do tracks three, four, and five). Unsurprisingly, each piece involves Menuck’s controversial vocal stylings, which have been the source of so much division among fans of ASMZ. Yes, by all appearances, ASMZ’s newest album would be yet another step toward a-musical cacophony—and not even the good kind, either.

This is a long-winded introduction, but I’ve written it because, based on conversations I’ve had with many other (often former) fans of ASMZ, I’ve come to believe that my situation is not unique. It may even be typical. And many of you have perhaps been nodding your heads along, wondering when I'm going to lay the hammer down on this record, rather than ASMZ's career as a whole. Keep waiting. Kollaps Tradixionales, far from being the disappointment that I and many others predicted, is actually a very pleasant surprise. No, it’s not a “fantastic” record, but I have no compunction about labeling it “great.”

Perhaps some of this is due to the aforementioned line-up change. Although changes in membership are nothing new for A Silver Mt. Zion, this is the first time (excepting its EP) that the number of band members has actually shrunk, from the near GY!BE-levels of 13 Blues and Horses in the Sky (both with seven) to a “mere” five band mates. That means that this is the smallest incarnation of ASMZ since its 2000 debut, which featured only three artists. Though it’s impossible for me to say with any certainty, the band seems much more restrained this time around, much less full of “fuck you” pomposity, as though these five friends decided to sit around and actually write some music, which I imagine was harder to do in the larger group setting; if I recall correctly, this was part of the reason for forming ASMZ in the first place. Ah, sweet irony.

Menuck still sings on every track, and it becomes increasingly more difficult to regard A Silver Mt. Zion as a post-rock band, no matter how much older fans may want to do so. It's pretty much straight-up indie at this point, albeit in a particularly protracted and drawn-out manner. The vocals are often still grating, as in the mono-tonal, mono-rhythmic intro to “I Made Myself a Metal Bird,” where Menuck screeches “I! Made! My! Self! A! Met!-al! Bird! I! Fed! My! Met!-al! Bird! The! Wings! Of! Oth!-er! Met!-al! Birds!” This certainly inspires respect for Menuck’s lung capacity (he doesn’t take a breath), but it doesn’t do much for our ears. When he later repeats “Dance you motherfuckers!” ad nauseum at the end of the song, the effect is, unsurprisingly, nauseating.

In other songs, however, Menuck’s singing is evocative, frail, and even—believe it or not—sweet. I am thinking particularly of album-opener “There Is a Light,” which is easily the best song the group has written in years. As Menuck nearly whispers, “Tell me there is a light,” I fell in love with his vocals all over again, as I haven’t since the halcyon days of “Movie (Never Made).” And when Menuck proceeds to scream the same line at the top of his lungs, bellowing it out in an impassioned, hysterical desire to believe that humans can possess humanity, the effect is simply haunting. It’s a combination of the best of early-day and latter-day ASMZ, something that I never would have believed could work so magnificently. It also worth mentioning that, though the song is quite long (15:19), every moment is absolutely necessary. If “Blindblindblind” was 13 Blues’ diamond among the rough, then “There Is a Light” is Kollaps Tradixionales’ platinum-fucking-medal among a sea of silver.

Elsewhere, the album ranges from annoying-yet-awesome wail of the “Metal Bird” suite (annoying because Menuck’s voice is back to its old habits, awesome because the rocking guitar riff is among the most driving bits of music that the band has ever written) to the over-long-yet-still-intriguing “‘Piphany Rambler,” to the straight-up interesting title triptych. The three “Collapse” pieces function as three variations on the theme of the collapse of traditional institutions. Exactly which institutions are collapsing is a bit difficult to say, as ASMZ’s lyrics retain their characteristic opacity, but the first, subtitled “Thee Olde Dirty Flag” seems to ruminate on the downfall of the national unit, which is itself a traditional theme for Menuck’s various bands. The linguistic scrambling of the titles of the three movements likely reflects this post-national priority. The short middle piece “(For Darling)” is the most elusive in meaning; the “collapse” implied here seems to be the death of a loved one, which in its very nature ruptures the institution of marriage. Finally, “Bury 3 Dynamos” indicates an oblique attack on traditional religion, with the “3 Dynamos” of the song title perhaps referring to the three persons in the Christian Trinity. Throughout the three-movement song, Menuck’s singing remains unusually strong. As in “There Is a Light,” the vocals shift from early-ASMZ-style to recent-ASMZ-style, but they are mostly enhanced for the contrast. If these songs are an indication of what music future albums from ASMZ might bring, then they are something to be looked forward to indeed.

Kollaps Tradixionales is an intriguing album, partly because it completely shattered my expectations, but also because it seems to indicate a band in transition. Just as Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward showed the collective shifting from the minimalism of the first album into the out-and-out bombast of its more recent works, I would predict that Kollaps Tradixionales will be retrospectively indicative of a shift in a new direction for the Montreal quintet/sestet/sextet/trio. The lengthy song-lengths of 13 Blues are likely in this for the long haul, but the overall focus is now much more introspective; perhaps we could say it’s more “Memorial,” less “Tra-La-La.” Oh, and also much more encouraging of singing that doesn’t shred my eardrums. In any case, I am now eagerly awaiting the next album from Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Quartet Extravaganza (with Sousaphones!), or whatever the next moniker turns out to be. Congratulations, ASMZ: you just reconverted yourself a fan. Consider me born again.

-Tom Butcher